Hope amidst the pain of dementia

By MERRY TITUS

For the Reporter

One day at work, I shared with some of my co-workers the issues I was having with my elderly mother’s dementia. Come to find out, these are common issues with folks ages 40 to 60 who have aging parents in various stages of the disease.

Author Rita Brasnahan, in “Walking One Another Home: Moments of Grace and Possibiliy in the Midst of Alzheimers,” shares her very personal and spiritual walk with her beloved mother’s descent into this painful disease, and we are all the better for it.

This book goes beyond helpful tips and ways to cope and goes straight for the hard spiritual questions, such as “How can I maintain a relationship with someone who no longer knows me?”

This is a caring, tender memoir that gives us a profound hope in the midst of an otherwise difficult and heart-rending life experience.

Merry Titus, who reviews books for the Reporter, is a King County Library System employee at Covington Library.